UN Committee of Experts on Environmental Accounting New York, June Peter Cosier Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists.

Transcription

1 UN Cmmittee f Experts n Envirnmental Accunting New Yrk, June 2011 Peter Csier Wentwrth Grup f Cncerned Scientists Speaking Ntes Peter Csier: Directr f the Wentwrth Grup Cncerned Scientists based in Sydney, Australia trained in natural resurce management career in envirnmental plicy 6 years - Advisr t the Australian Envirnment Minister Wentwrth Grup: frmed in 2002 the gal f cnnecting science t public plicy science has a very imprtant rle in the sustainability challenges f the 21 st century, but we nave nt been very gd at presenting science in a manner which can be readily used by plicy makers. Our wrk is fcused principally in 4 areas: deriving multiple benefits frm terrestrial carbn ffsets Water resurce management in the Australia s largest river system and primary fd grwing regin, the Murray Darling Basin Climate change plicy bth mitigatin and adaptatin Natinal envirnmental accunts 1

2 Our interest in Envirnmental Accunts: Australia is trying t deal with 2 centuries f land and water degradatin, the lss f bidiversity, and the ver-explitatin f ur marine resurces. This is an issue we share in cmmn with many ther cuntries as we seek t manage the impact the industrial revlutin has had n the health f ur natural systems. Over the next 40 years, the need t feed 9 billin peple will place greater pressures n the health f the wrld s natural resurces and this is against a backgrund f a new challenge f climate change. The ecnmic parallels are cmpelling: the wrld is wrking its way ut f a glbal financial crisis because we brrwed mre frm the future than we were able t repay, and the system brke. We are als facing great envirnmental challenges fr the same reasn we have been increasingly living ff and degrading ur natural capital beynd the ability f nature t replenish. The difference is that we have a far greater ability t crrect ur ecnmic mistakes than we have in crrecting ur envirnmental mistakes, because after the crisis f Great Depressin the wrld put in place a system f ecnmic accunts. If we are t have any hpe f managing the envirnmental challenges f the 21 st century, we are ging t have t apply the same discipline t envirnmental management that we apply t managing ur ecnmy. Australia, as has many ther parts f the wrld, have fr decades nw been trying the traditinal appraches t envirnmental plicy, such as State f the Envirnment type reprting. These have all failed, simply because we have nt fund a means t systematically measure the cnditin f ur ecsystems in a way that can be integrated int ecnmic decisin making. The mistake science has made was nt t learn frm the experience in building ecnmic accunts. And if yu dn t measure it, yu can t manage it. Accunting fr Nature: A number f peple have said hw difficult ecsystem accunting is and it is cmplex ecsystems are cmplex. I smetimes feel we are where ecnmic statistics were in the 1940s We knw we wn t have the answer vernight, but where d yu start? The Wentwrth Grup came t the view that if we are t successfully integrate ecsystem health int ecnmic decisin making, we needed t find a way by which science can talk t ecnmists and statisticians. 2

3 We realised that the design f envirnmental accunts can benefit greatly frm the experience and discipline that has evlved in ecnmic accunting ver the past 50 years. We gathered a grup f experts, including ecnmists and accuntants t lk at a new apprach. After 18 mnths f wrk, in 2008 we prduced Accunting fr Nature. This Accunting fr Nature mdel cnfrnts tw prblems that have plagued previus attempts: We recgnised that we d nt have, nr will we ever have, enugh mney t systematically measure everything as scientists ften demand; and Even if we did, we dn t have a cmmn unit f measure that allws us t place scientific infrmatin int an accunting framewrk - and withut this, it is nt pssible t link ecsystem health t ecnmic decisin making. I ll return t this in a mment Australian Trials In Australia we have a reginalised natural resurce management system in place: 56 regins cvering the cntinent f 750 millin hectare. In 2011, 9 f these regins, cvering a variety f landscape types and varying levels f prfessinal and technical capacity are trailing this Accunting fr Nature mdel. We are ding this in partnership with gvernment agencies in particular the Australian Bureau f Statistics, Bureau f Meterlgy, gvernment departments, and CSIRO The first year trials are trailing a prcess as much as a prduct. We have created tw cmmittees a Scientific Accreditatin Cmmittee and a Technical Accunting cmmittee - ne t accredit the science, the ther t ensure the infrmatin fits within an apprpriate accunting framewrk. We are als in the prcess f develping tw manuals - Guidelines fr hw t cnstruct the accunts and an Accreditatin Manual, which sets the standards fr their accreditatin. 3

4 Relatinship t SEEA T date the emphasis in the SEEA accunts has been n measuring the ecnmic impact f resurce depletin. This is imprtant, because revealing the prices assciated with physical assets can tell us hw efficiently natural resurces are being used t supprt ur ecnmy and hw this activity impacts n the stcks f thse physical assets. Hwever, if envirnmental accunting is t cntribute t the sustainable management f the wrld s natural capital, it must als be able t measure the impact ecnmic activity is having n the health f ecsystems. These trials are t test whether the Accunting fr Nature mdel will satisfy this test. The cncept f a Cmmn Currency fr Ecsystem Health Natinal ecnmic accunts are built using a natinal currency which assigns a cmmn value fr the exchange f gds and services. We d nt have a cmmn measure fr the envirnment and as a cnsequence, envirnmental plicy is still built arund a barter system. The starting pint fr building a system f envirnmental accunts must therefre be the creatin f a cmmn unit f measure that is capable f assigning a value fr all envirnmental assets and indicatrs f ecsystem health. Creating a cmmn measure fr envirnmental health must address a number f challenges: n tw envirnmental assets are the same; ften different indicatrs are needed t measure the same asset in different lcatins; the cst f data cllectin creates significant variatin in the quality f infrmatin cllected; and n single indicatr can prvide a cmplete picture f ecsystem health. There is n dubt that mdern science is capable f prviding this infrmatin. What is needed is a system f accunts that systematically rganises and reprts that infrmatin. The Accunting fr Nature mdel creates a cmmn unit f accunt fr all envirnmental assets and indicatrs f ecsystem health, irrespective f the unit f measurement, by using the science f reference cnditin benchmarks. The science f reference cnditin based indicatrs prvides fr envirnmental accunting what ecnmic accunts already have - a cmmn currency. This cmmn currency des nt imply a mnetary value; it is simply a scientific methd fr standardising the measurement f envirnmental assets s the 4

5 relative state f ne asset can be cmpared with anther, and infrmatin at different scales and fr different assets may be aggregated. This methd allws envirnmental accunts t adpt an ecnmic accunting framewrk. There are many parallels between ecnmic accunts and envirnmental accunts. Hwever, there is a subtle, but imprtant difference behind the cllectin f ecnmic statistics and envirnmental accunts, that is all t ften nt recgnised in their design. In ecnmic plicy, the fcus is t measure ecnmic grwth (r therwise) in the ecnmy, whereas the plicy fcus fr envirnmental accunting is t maintain an envirnmental asset at a certain cnditin s that it can cntinue t prvide services t humans indefinitely. Ecnmic plicy is fcussed n increasing the flws f gd and services, and in ding s imprving ur ecnmic wellbeing. Envirnmental plicy is nt just abut increasing r decreasing quantity, it is primarily abut maintaining the cnditin r quality f a stck. If envirnmental accunts dn t measure the change in the cnditin f a stck, and simply measure a change in quantity, then they are f n value t plicy makers. The Accunt fr Nature is built arund this understanding: reference cnditin is a benchmark that describes an envirnmental asset in its mst healthy state. It can be: an estimate f its pre-industrial cnditin; r an estimate f the best cnditin at a site; r a mdelled cnditin that reflects the least disturbed cnditin pssible. By using the reference cnditin methdlgy, nt nly des it measure the change in all envirnmental assets n a cmmn scale, it als describes hw each is asset is tracking twards r away frm a benchmarked healthy cnditin. Having said that, I must als emphasis that reference cnditin accunting des nt imply r suggest that envirnmental assets shuld be returned t a predisturbance cnditin: it simply uses this infrmatin, in the same way natinal accunts are used, t infrm plicy develpment thrugh ther prcesses and prducts that are derived frm these accunts. Reginal Scale trials We believe this methd is capable f wrking at all spatial scales prperty, catchment, reginal, natinal, and internatinal, because it enables data that is cllected at a lcal scale t be aggregated. 5

6 Our trials are fcussing n a reginal scale this is driven bth by need and by the fact that we believe we have access t sufficient infrmatin at this scale n which t base the trial. These trials will take existing infrmatin bth current and past and use the reference cnditin benchmarking t create a cmmn envirnmental currency that allws this infrmatin t be systematically rganised int an accunting framewrk. There is a lt f envirnmental infrmatin arund and with remte sensing technlgies there is a lt mre t cme. What it needs is a structure that rganises all this infrmatin int an accunting structure. Guidelines and Accreditatin Standards If envirnmental accunts are t be accepted by markets and decisin-makers, they must have cnfidence that the cmmn envirnmental currency prperly reflects the cnditin f the envirnmental assets being measured. Statisticians and ecnmists need t be cnfident that the science is rbust, and that the accunts satisfy statistical standards. Accreditatin invlves experts assessing accunts against a set f standards and making a judgement as t whether they meet the standards t an acceptable level. Accreditatin standards have been established t define such standards and assess the reginal envirnmental accunts in these trials. Our bjective is that these envirnmental accunting standards shuld als be able t be applied in the cnstructin and accreditatin f lcal (sub-reginal) and prperty scale envirnmental accunts in the future. Review I m delighted t be here with yu tday, because I feel that, thrugh SEEA, we are abut t embark n a jurney that in years t cme will see envirnmental accunting evlve int the same level f sphisticatin that ecnmic accunting has reached. It wn t slve all the wrld s prblems, but it will at least give us humans the tls t d s. In recgnising this, at the end f this first year f ur reginal trials, ur intentin is t have the prcess peer reviewed, and take lessns frm the experience. Our gal is t prduce the first set f natinal envirnmental accunts using infrmatin supplied by all 56 regins within 3 years. 6

7 Accunting fr Nature Australian Reginal Envirnmental Accunts Trials 2011 Peter Csier WENTWORTH GROUP OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS